Midnight's Christmas
by DragonBlade152
Summary: Midnight's first Yule, complete with a blizzard, an arguing couple, and everyone's favorite annoyance.


Happy Winter Solstice everyone!

_Italicized_ means dragons speaking.

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><p>I shivered as I curled up tighter. It was snowing, like it had been for the past three and a half months or so, and the wind blew the white menace in through every single crack in the walls. Why humans couldn't live in something sensible like caves I didn't know. Maybe they liked freezing to death. They were Vikings, after all, and most of them weren't known for their brains.<p>

Grumbling to myself, I stood and headed for the door. The snow didn't show any sign of stopping soon, and I was hungry. As I got near the door it opened and Astrid came inside. I could tell she was upset even though she was bundled up in furs. For one thing, she slammed the door closed. She also gave off this angry vibe that would send anything smaller than her running for cover. Was Freya acting up again? If she was she was getting a one-way trip to the ocean floor courtesy of my claws.

"Who does that idiot think he is, anyway?" she muttered.

Uh-oh. There was only one guy Astrid would talk about like that, at least without doing some serious damage to first. I gave her a questioning look, and she sighed.

"Hiccup's just being an idiot."

Yep, nailed it. I gave Astrid a comforting nudge, and she managed to smile a little as she started scratching me in that one place.

"At least you're not mad at me."

Not when you scratch like that, no. It must have been good for Astrid too, because when she finally stopped she was much calmer. I had to wonder what Hiccup did. Maybe Toothless would know.

With a final pat Astrid left, and I psyched myself up before going outside. The snow had subsided a little, though it was still coming down. What idiot had come up with the idea of living on this hunk of rock in the middle of the ocean where it snowed freakin' nine months out of the year? By the time I got to the dragons' table I was grumbling again. Toothless was there, looking almost as miserable as I was.

_Lovely weather we're having,_ I said with enough sarcasm to sink a ship.

_Tell me about it._

We started eating, swallowing the frozen fish as quickly as possible so we could get somewhere where the temperature wasn't below freezing. By unspoken agreement we went to my place. Toothless was lucky enough to get to sleep inside Hiccup's house, but two Night Furies made it too crowded for the humans, and Helga and Shatterglass usually went somewhere else during this time of day. Once we were inside Toothless shook off the snow.

_Do you know about Hiccup's and Astrid's fight?_

_ Yeah. Do you know what it's about?_

Toothless did the dragon equivalent of a shrug. _No clue. Whose fault do you think it is?_

I knew a loaded question when I heard one, so I took a moment to come up with a neutral answer. _Judging from personal experience, they're both probably just being stupid._

_ Probably._ He curled up. _Oh, I should probably warn you. Yule's coming up._

_ What's coming up?_

_ Yule. It's another crazy Viking thing._

_ Joy. What kind of insanity does it entail?_

Toothless told me about families cutting down trees and putting them up in their home, getting a big tree and betting who could pull it the farthest, and all sorts of crazy things. By the time he was finished I already felt exhausted.

_They don't do all that in one day, do they?_

_ No, it's usually spread out. They'll probably start getting the small trees any day now._

_ I don't suppose I could just stay in here and not freeze to death._

_ Probably not. They dragged me out last year._

I sighed and curled up. I hated snow. Really, really hated snow.

_Hey, it could be worse,_ Toothless said with a friendly nudge. _You could have to sleep outside in the snow._

_ Are you always so optimistic?_

_ Only when I'm not cold._

I rolled my eyes.

"Toothless!" a voice called. Toothless sighed and stood.

_That's Hiccup. I wonder if his fight extends to us._

_ If it does I'm ignoring both of them._

Toothless chuckled a little. _I'm with you. See you later._

He left, and I resigned myself to curling up tighter and trying not to freeze to death.

Toothless was right: the next day I saw a couple of people drag whole pine trees inside their houses. Had Toothless not warned me I would have given up the lot of them as completely insane. Astrid and her family went out a couple of days later and returned with a good-sized tree. I guess with that many in their family they didn't need a dragon to haul it back. Or they figured I and/or the others would have refused. Considering how the snow had stopped for a whole six hours total in almost as many days, that would have been fairly accurate. Both Helga and Shatterglass had taken to staying inside unless they absolutely had to go out. Normally it would have bugged me, but the addition of two (moderately) warm bodies increased the temperature to where I could almost feel my extremities, and they didn't talk to me much anyways. Toothless, for the most part, stayed inside Hiccup's house, only coming over to ask if Astrid had said anything about making up with Hiccup. Since the only time she mentioned Hiccup in my presence anymore was complaining, my answer remained no. Both Toothless and I were beginning to get tired of it, but there wasn't much we could do.

Two days after Astrid's family got their tree I received confirmation that Vikings are the most idiotic creatures ever to disgrace this world. It was a blizzard. Not a few flakes in a breeze, either. More like so much snow it was impossible to see more than a few feet away and wind so strong the snow was blowing sideways. The only plus was that there was now a wall of snow against the building, preventing the wind from blowing more inside. You would think the humans would wait to get their big tree, right? Wrong. The morons started gathering everyone together sometime in the afternoon, when the blizzard seemed to be at its worst. It took both Astrid and her dad to drag me outside, and even then Astrid had to threaten to lock me out to keep me from bolting back inside.

I'm not going to lie, I was about ready to maul someone. The only thing that kept me from actually doing so was the fact that I didn't know who had made the decision to get some stupid tree in the worst weather this forsaken island had ever seen. By the time Toothless found me I was trying to decide if it was Stoick or one of the elders and whether frying them would give them too much comfort before they died.

_I see you're enjoying this as much as I am,_ he said sourly.

_I just want to know who decided to do it in this weather so I can kill them._

_ You'll have to get in line._

We finally started off. As we left the village I had to wonder if they had a tree already in mind, or if we were just going to wander around until we froze to death. It's not like they could even see any trees until they smacked into one, and the snow was so deep it reached over everyone's heads in some places. The dragons, for the most part, moved in a tightly packed herd. Even I stayed fairly close, though both Toothless and I kept a little apart and downwind. By the time we stopped I had lost feeling in my wings and tail, and my feet felt like blocks of ice.

_So we just stand here and freeze to death while they chop down the stupid tree?_ I asked.

_Pretty much. Unless you'd like to chop it down for them._

_ Don't tempt me._

We huddled as close together as we could without being awkward and waited as they started chopping at the tree. I didn't know how big of a tree it was, but if the time they were taking to cut it down was anything to go by it must have been gigantic. After a few minutes I got impatient.

_I'm going to see what's taking them so long._ I said as I headed towards the sound of metal on wood.

Toothless sighed and followed. _Just do anything too stupid._

When we got to where they were chopping down the tree I was sorely disappointed. It looked like they had barely made a dent in it. What did they do, make sure their axes weren't sharp so this would take as long as possible? I came closer, nudging the humans out of the way and shoving when they didn't move fast enough.

"Midnight, what…" Astrid started.

One fireball made more progress than five humans had in as many minutes, and a second caused the tree to start leaning. Satisfied that the humans should (hopefully) be able to handle it from there in less than an hour, I went back to using the other dragons as a wind shield.

_I don't know if the humans are going to be happy with you,_ Toothless said as he joined me.

_I don't care. All I want right now is to get somewhere where I can feel my tail again._

The tree fell after a minute, and they tied ropes to it. Rather than everyone grabbing one and helping to haul it back as fast as possible, though, they started going one by one, trying to drag the blasted thing as far as they could down the canyon of snow.

_And what is the purpose of this?_ I asked.

_Some sort of stupid competition to see who can pull it the farthest._

_ Do we have to let all the humans try before pulling the stupid tree back?_

_ Yeah. Otherwise they get mad._

I did my best to be patient, meaning I tried not to laugh too hard whenever someone fell flat on their face. Finally all the humans that cared to try had done so, even some of the midgets who couldn't bend one of the branches, much less move the entire tree.

"I bet Toothless and I could haul it back faster than last time!" Hiccup said.

"I bet Midnight could haul it back faster than Toothless!" Astrid retorted.

As they began arguing I sighed. _I thought the whole purpose of freezing our tails off like this was to make people stop fighting._

_ In theory, yes._ Toothless stood. _Shall we show them both up?_

_ Let's._

We went to the tree. The humans had thoughtfully tied multiple ropes to it, and Toothless and I each took one in our mouths.

_First one there gets to lie in the fire pit,_ Toothless said around the rope.

_I hope you're ready to be cold._

_ On three then?_

I nodded. _One._

_ Two._

We shot off, almost running over both our humans as well as a few others who barely got out of the way in time. As we barreled down the snow canyon I couldn't help but grin. Between Toothless and me the tree wasn't even that heavy. There were a couple of places where the snow had piled up again, but we were out of those spots almost as soon as we got in them. In no time we were at the hall, stopping only long enough to get the doors open before dragging the tree inside. I dropped the rope and shook whatever snow remained on me.

_You think that was fast enough for them?_

_ Hopefully. So which side of the fire pit do you want?_

_ Whichever side will thaw my feet out._

By the time the humans finally got there both Toothless and I were comfortably situated and thawing out in the fire pit. Amid the laughter and chatter I saw Astrid and Hiccup glaring at each other. Was there any way I could lock them out until they made up? Maybe I could get Toothless to help. He was as sick of it as I was.

The big tree was set up, and they began decorating it. I admit, I was surprised. I was sure someone was going to fall off the ladders, but they managed to put all their junk on without any injuries. It was almost disappointing. Once the tree was all prettied up they kicked both Toothless and I off the fire so they could cook dinner, after which we promptly returned. I was just about to take a nap when I heard a commotion. When I opened my eyes I saw Astrid's mom going around, asking where Freya was. Personally I couldn't care where she was, but from the look of it Astrid was a little worried as well. Her dad left, presumably to see if Freya was at home, but returned a short while later, shaking his head.

_I wonder where the little cretin got off to._ I said.

_Who knows? Maybe she got lost outside._

_ I don't suppose we could just leave her out there. It'd make my life easier, at least._

_ Probably not. Astrid's coming over now._

Astrid was indeed coming over. "Come on, Midnight. We're going to look for Freya."

Just as my feet were getting warm, too. I sighed and resigned my spot.

_Have fun,_ Toothless said.

Hiccup chose that moment to walk up. "Come on, bud. We're helping too."

Toothless grumbled as he left the fire pit, and I couldn't help but grin.

_Karma._

Toothless just gave me a look and followed Hiccup outside. When Astrid didn't say anything I knew she was worried. We stopped by the house long enough for her to put my saddle on and mount before heading back towards where we had gotten the big tree. It would have been easier to fly and try to spot her, but the wind made it impossible to even take off. By this time the trail was all but gone, so I had to guess. Toothless and Hiccup were not too far away, searching for any sign of the missing menace. After almost half an hour I heard Hiccup call, "I found her!"

At Astrid's insistence I bounded over. They were standing next to a hole in the snow. From the look of it something underneath had given away and caused a deep sinkhole. At the bottom was Freya, sobbing and shivering.

"Freya!" Astrid called as she jumped off and fell to her knees beside the hole.

"Get me out of here! Please!" Freya cried, though she sounded too cold to speak too loud.

Astrid reached down, but the hole was too deep. They hadn't thought to bring rope with them, either, and both Hiccup and Astrid seemed at a loss as to what to do. Down in the hole Freya had become still, too still to be good. With a sigh I started digging near the edge.

_You're not nearly as heartless as you pretend to be,_ Toothless said as he joined me.

_No, I just know the longer she's in that hole, the longer I have to stay out here._

_ Sure,_ he said with a roll of his eyes.

Within a couple of minutes we were deep enough so that Astrid could climb down. When she got back out she wasted no time in putting Freya on me. As she was swinging up Hiccup removed one of his many layers and wrapped it around Freya. Once Astrid was on I started back towards the village. The wind was at my back, so by spreading my wings ever so slightly I could double my leaping distance. We made it back to the hall in no time, passing several search parties while we were at it. As soon as we were inside Astrid jumped off and carried Freya to where their parents were. Guess that meant my job was done. Too bad no one seemed inclined to take my saddle off. While everyone else gathered Freya I went to the fire pit and got as close as I could to it without scorching the saddle.

Toothless and Hiccup came in not too long after. By that time Freya was declared fine as long as she didn't go outside for a while, though she did seem to have a bit of a cough. After being outside in a blizzard for almost two hours it was a wonder that she didn't have anything worse.

_I take it she's not dead,_ Toothless said as he took a spot next to me.

_Nope._

_ You sound happy about it._

_ I just didn't want to find out I went out into that horrible weather for a corpse._

Toothless snorted. _Right._

I decided to ignore that comment and looked around. Several humans were gathering in a corner, instruments in hand. Everyone else was busy clearing away the tables and benches. Once the floor was cleared the musicians struck up a lively tune. Great. Maybe now I could take a nap. Before I could close my eyes Toothless nudged me and nodded towards the floor. Astrid was standing on one end of the hall, holding Hiccup's fur whatever that he'd wrapped around Freya and occasionally glancing towards the other side of the hall, where Hiccup was standing. Every so often they'd glance at each other at the same time and look away. I sighed.

_Shall we nudge?_

_ They aren't going to get back together any other way. Try to get Astrid under that plant up there._

Toothless headed towards Hiccup. Plant? I looked up and spotted a plant with white berries nailed to a rafter. What significance it had I didn't know, but if it would help stop the idiotic fighting then I wasn't going to question it. I went over to Astrid, nudging several people aside, and started pushing her towards the spot. She protested, but I just pushed her harder. After a minute we reached the spot under the plant, a split second before Hiccup was propelled by Toothless to the same place. Astrid stared at Hiccup for a second, then turned to leave. I growled.

"Midnight—"

I growled louder. You are not leaving until you either make up with Hiccup or one of us keels over. Astrid sighed, then turned back to face Hiccup. After a moment of awkward standing she held the fur out.

"Thanks for helping to find Freya."

Hiccup took the fur, and they stood for a couple more minutes before Toothless nudged Hiccup.

"What?"

Toothless gave him a look, and he sighed and turned to Astrid.

"Hey, um, Astrid, uh…" he cleared his throat. "I, uh, just wanted to say I'm sorry. For, you know, being an idiot."

"That's okay. I'm sorry for being stubborn." Astrid paused for a moment, then hit him. "That's for not apologizing sooner."

I just barely had time to roll my eyes before she kissed him on the cheek. Humans. Toothless nudged Hiccup and looked up at the plant. Hiccup stared at it for a moment. "But—"

Astrid kissed him on the mouth, silencing him. After a moment of stunned silence Hiccup said, "So, um, you wanna dance?"

They went off to join the dancers, and I rolled my eyes again.

_I swear people just get more insane as time goes on._

_ Yep._ Toothless suddenly pressed his lips against my face.

_What the crap?_ I asked, startled.

_That plant's mistletoe. If two people meet under it they're supposed to kiss._

_ I see the insanity has infected you, too,_ I said dryly.

Toothless just gave me one of his signature grins and watched the dancers. After a few moments I mimicked his kiss.

_Now who are you calling insane?_ he asked as he nuzzled me.

_I've just been around you too long._

He chuckled, and we went back to the fire pit and curled up next to each other. Maybe this Yule thing wasn't as bad as I'd thought.

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><p>And before anyone gets on my back about it, I know karma is Buddhist and Vikings are not. However, it fit too well, and I couldn't think of an equivalent. Besides, who says dragons might not have their own version of it?<p>

Anyway, Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, and a Happy New Year!


End file.
